How to Change Notifications Priority in Windows 11 Changing notification priority in Windows 11 helps ensure critical alerts stay visible when your Notification Center gets busy. Let’s walk through how to put urgent alerts first and keep critical updates visible. Before we begin, be sure to subscribe to NinjaOne’s IT video hub and our YouTube channel for more tech content like this. Why Notification Priority Matters Next, it helps to understand how Windows sorts alerts. The Notification Center uses chronological order by default, so critical server or security warnings can fall behind routine messages. Windows offers three priority levels to prevent this. Top priority places an app’s notifications at the very top of the Notification Center. High priority places notifications above Normal alerts but below Top priority notifications. Normal priority keeps notifications in the default chronological order. Using these levels keeps essential information visible during busy workflows. How To Adjust Priority in Settings After that, you can change priority through the Settings app. Open Settings with Win + I, then go to System > Notifications. Under Notifications from apps and other senders, select the app you want to configure and choose its notification priority. Select Top, High, or Normal depending on how you want alerts to appear. Windows may prompt you to allow high-priority toasts, and you should approve this if you chose Top. Windows will immediately update how alerts from that app are sorted in the Notification Center. How To Set Priority From Notification Center Meanwhile, you can make adjustments directly from an active alert. Open the Notification Center with Win + N, hover over a notification, and use the three-dot menu. You can make the app Top priority, High priority, or remove priority to return it to Normal. Windows updates the order in real time, which is useful during incidents or when evaluating new tools. How To Configure Priority With the Registry Finally, IT administrators can configure notification priority through the Registry Editor. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings and open the folder for the app. Create or edit the Priority DWORD value inside the app’s registry key. Use 99 for Top, 1 for High, or delete the value for Normal. This method provides granular control, but you should always back up the Registry or create a restore point before making changes. For more information, check out our official blog post on changing notification priority in Windows 11 linked in the description below.